Focus on equality: Study identifies seven “gender gaps”

International Women's Day, Equal Pay Day, Equal Care Day: the list of recent campaigns and holidays related to gender equality is long. To mark the occasion, the Bertelsmann Foundation published a new study last week that examines structural barriers to equality in the labor market, highlighting the problems women face in particular. The authors of the study divide the statistically verifiable disadvantages faced by women into seven “gender gaps.”

In addition to more self-explanatory and widely known discrepancies such as the gender pay gap, gender (work) time gap, and gender pension gap, these also include less frequently discussed phenomena such as the gender care gap: Currently, the lion's share of reproductive and care work is performed by women, who do an average of 52% more care work per day than men.

Further disadvantages for women can be seen, for example, in terms of average lifetime earnings (gender lifetime earnings gap), financial literacy and knowledge of long-term financial security (financial literacy gap), and the income gap between childless women and mothers (motherhood lifetime penalty). To combat these pervasive problems, the authors of the Bertelsmann Foundation report outline various options for action for all stakeholders involved: On the one hand, current financial disincentives must be corrected and, at the same time, a new appreciation of (female) gainful employment must be created. Second, they emphasize the importance of breaking down traditional role models and reducing the workload for women through reproductive work.

At this point, a brief disclaimer: While the Bertelsmann Foundation study makes a valuable contribution to the quantitative assessment of female disadvantage, it focuses on the situation of women in heterosexual relationships and is therefore unable to capture the structural problems faced by queer women and non-binary people in the workplace. This is certainly also due to the fact that reliable and up-to-date figures on this subject are scarce or non-existent. More space and visibility must therefore be created for these experiences of discrimination in order to achieve true equality on International Women's Day and beyond.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Civil society engagement: Companies play a major role in promoting civil society engagement, particularly in the eastern German states. This is shown by an as yet unpublished study, the findings of which are summarized by Tagesschau.

• Collective bargaining: While the GDL is still conducting a sensational strike, other professional groups are also currently involved in labor disputes – such as doctors at university hospitals.

• Courier and taxi services: At the EU level, a law is currently being voted on that aims to improve employee rights on online platforms. Details such as Germany's position are known to the SZ (€).

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